China’s Legal Profession: Judges and Lawyers

Under China’s unique political and legal system and social structure, it is interesting to see what occupational role Chinese legal profession is playing, how is their way of life, and what are the public views on this. China Justice Observer (CJO) will present the observation and analysis of Chinese legal profession on themselves.

The judge quota system refers to the system for determining the number of judges in the court. In the judicial reform, the SPC attempts to rationally determine the number of judges in each court in a scientific way and then select the right candidate to serve as a judge.

The protection of the personal rights of Chinese judges is one of the most concerned issues for them. From an investigation report made by Longyan Intermediate People's Court of Fujian Province, we can learn that the personal rights of Chinese judges are often violated. Now, the SPC is working hard to solve this problem.

Improving the judicial accountability system, one of the most important measures in Chinese judicial reform, is supposed to hold judges accountable for life for cases they handle and to effectively discipline judges for misconduct. Prior to this, Chinese judges were never subject to such strict requirements.

The Ministry of Justice of China recently released a series of data on Chinese lawyers as of the end of 2017, including the number of lawyers, the number of lawsuits in which they acted as agents, and the number of clients they provided services for.

In modern China, there is an obvious increase in the number of female law students, lawyers and judges, which has surpassed the number of male professionals. Such an increase brings a unique feminization to China’s law profession.